Popular Culture

  Popular Culture Major and Minor Requirements 

Major Requirement for New BGSU Students (those entering Fall 2012 or later):

Popular Culture students must complete 6 required courses, 1 media course, and 1 folklore course, and 3 electives for a total of 33 hours.  Students are also required to select a minor. Majors will take the four of their required courses with other students from the units in the School of Cultural and Critical Studies (CCS) which includes American Culture Studies, Ethnic Studies, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.  These interdisciplinary CCS courses are designed to bring together the diverse knowledge and skills our majors have gathered and prepare them for life after BGSU.  In these courses, students will learn cultural studies theories and research methods, create their own research project, and engage in service-learning.

Required:
• POPC 1600: Introduction to Popular Culture
• POPC 3100: Global Popular Culture
• CCS 3030: Intersections of Gender, Race & Culture
• CCS 3710: Gender, Race & Culture in Community-Based Practice
• CCS 4850: Qualitative Research Methods
• CCS 4860: Capstone Seminar

Select 1 POPC media course (3 hours)
• POPC 2500, 2700, 2800, 2900, 3500, 3700, 3800, 3900, or 4700
Select 1 POPC folklore course (3 hours)
• POPC 2200, 3200, 3210, 3250, or 4240

Select 3 electives (9 hours), six (6) hours must be at the 3000/4000 level.*

*No more than three (3) hours of POPC 4900 and POPC 3950 may be counted towards the major requirements.


Major Requirements for Students Entering Prior to Fall 2012:

Popular Culture majors are required to complete the following courses for a total of 36 hours, plus a minor.

Required:
• POPC 1600 or POPC 1650
• POPC 1700: Black Popular Culture
• POPC 2600: Popular Culture Research
• POPC 3000: Topics in Intrn’l/Global Pop Culture

• Select 1 from POPC 2500, 2700, 2800, or 2900

• Select 1 from POPC 2200, 3200, 3210, 3250, or 4240

• Select 1 from POPC 3500, 3700, 3800, 4600, or 4700

• POPC 3650 or POPC 4260

• POPC 4800: Senior Seminar in Popular Culture

Electives:
• Nine (9) additional credit hours chosen in consultative with the School Advisor. Six (6) hours must be at the 3000/4000 level.

Note: No more than 3 hours of POPC 4900: Problems in Popular Culture may be counted towards the major requirements and no more than 3 hours of POPC 3950: Workshop on Current Topics may be counted towards the major requirements.


Popular Culture Minor (21 hours):

Required:
• POPC 1600 or 1650
• POPC 1700
• Select four (4) 3000-level or 4000-level POPC courses (12 credit hours)
• Select one (1) POPC course of your choice

Course Descriptions:

 POPC 160 Introduction to Popular Culture (3). Basic theories of, approaches to and topics within popular culture; several selected topics and use of various theories and approaches.

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 POPC 165 Popular Culture and Media (3). Some of the ways in which mass media (TV, film, recording industry, print, radio) have affected modern American culture. Media relationships and interactions.

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 POPC 170 Black Popular Culture (3). Basic theories of approaches to 20th century African-American popular culture. Traces ways black popular culture has shaped and is shaped by American society. Examines relationship of race, ethnicity, gender and class.

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 POPC 220 Introduction to Folklore and Folklife (3). Study and collecting of folklore: ballads, myths, tall tales, heroes, folk medicines, superstitions, proverbs and crafts.

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 POPC 231 Studies in Popular Culture (1-3).  Study of theme, era or issue in popular culture.  Subject matter designated in class schedule.  May be repeated if topics differ.

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 POPC 250 Introduction to Popular Film (3). Popular film as mass entertainment medium; Hollywood studios, popular film formulae, genres, relationships between popular films and movie-going audience; viewing of appropriate films.

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 POPC 260 Popular Culture Research (3). Examines different methods of popular culture research and theories on which they are based. Application of course concepts to contemporary issues in popular culture.

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 POPC 270 Introduction to Contemporary Popular Literature (3). Popular literary formulae, publishing industry, relationship between popular literature and reading public, functions of popular literature in society.

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 POPC 280 Introduction to Popular Music(3). Relationship between music world and listening-viewing audience; musical styles, trends in popular music, popular performers and entertainers and what they reveal about popular culture; appropriate music listening.

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 POPC 290 Television as Popular Culture (3). Relationship between popular television programming and American society; viewing of appropriate television.

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 POPC 300 Topics in International/Global Popular Culture (3).  In-depth study of international and/or global aspects of everyday life and popular culture: consumer culture, mass media, entertainment, migration, technology, etc.  Areas may include Ireland, China, Taiwan, Japan, and Canada.  May be repeated to nine hours if topics differ.

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 POPC 320 Folktale and Legend (3). Intensive examination and collecting of oral narratives; theory and methods of collecting, organizing and interpreting such material of folktales, urban belief tales, supernatural legends, narrative jokes, tall tales, etc.; analysis of folk mythology.

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 POPC 321 Folklife and Material Culture (3). Study and analysis of nonverbal folklife; theory and methods of analysis of such forms of expressive folk culture as arts, crafts, architecture, foodways, festivals, customs and folk rituals; emphasis on modes of description and analysis commonly used by folklorists to understand and explain such materials.

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 POPC 325 The Folk Group/Folk Region (3). Intensive study of a single folk group or the folklore of a specific region (e.g., Women's Folk Culture, Folklore of the Great Lakes Region, etc.). Emphasis on the function of various types of folklore within the group or region. May be repeated once if content clearly differs.

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 POPC 350 Advanced Studies in Popular Culture (3). In-depth study of a particular aspect of popular film: single genre, particular director, specific studio, etc. May be repeated once if topics are different; viewing of appropriate films.

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 POPC 365 Youth and Popular Culture (3).  History, theory, and perceptions of youth cultures and subcultures.  Young peoples' distinctive roles as audience, producers, and consumers of popular cultures.  Topics may include comparative youth cultures, music, new media, fashion, and everyday life.

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 POPC 370 History of Popular Literature (3). Detective, science fiction, western, mystery, best sellers, poetry, magazine fiction.

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 POPC 380 Contexts of Popular Music (3). In-depth investigation into single aspect of popular music: specific popular music genres, specific popular music themes, popular music industry, etc. May be repeated to nine hours if topics differ.

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 POPC 395 Workshop on Current Topics (1-3).  Intensive educational experience on selected topics.  Typically, an all-day or similar concentrated time format.  Requirements usually completed within expanded time format.

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 POPC 424 Folklore Genres (3). Intensive study and collecting of a single folk genre or distinctive type of folk materials (e.g., American Folk Music, Ethnic Foodways in America, The Urban Belief Tale, etc.). Emphasis on theory and method of collection and analysis. May be repeated once if content differs clearly.

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 POPC 426 Popular Entertainments (3). Cultural significance of popular entertainments, past and present; circuses, carnivals, parades, vaudeville, professional and amateur sports, camping, etc.

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 POPC 460 Popular Culture Advanced Studies (3). In-depth study of particular problem: development of hero in popular arts, cultural analysis of popular film, cultural analysis of popular music, etc. May be repeated once if subject matter is different.

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 POPC 470 Studies in Popular Literature (3).  In-depth study of a particular aspect of popular literature such as by genre (horror, science fiction, comic books, romance), author, or historical period.  May be repeated once if topics clearly differ.

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 POPC 480 Senior Seminar in Popular Culture (3).  Seminar for seniors in POPC program.  Selected topics approached from several points of view.

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 POPC 485 Fieldwork in Folklore Studies (2).  Supervised independent collecting project intended as a senior seminar.  Advanced students, under close supervision of one or more faculty, develop and carry out intensive exercise in collecting a specific form of folk material.

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 POPC 490 Problems in Popular Culture (1-3).  For advanced student.  Independent study.  Prerequisites:  six hours of POPC courses and consent of the department chair and instructor by 12th week of semester preceding the term in which the course is to be taken.  May be repeated to eight hours.

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Last updated 10/23/2012